


Rabbit Appreciation Day

by PseudoFox



Category: Zootopia (2016)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Science Fiction, Anthropomorphic, Awkwardness, Easter, Furry, Interspecies Relationship(s), Interspecies Romance, Multi, Science Fiction, Weirdness
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-04-17
Updated: 2017-04-16
Packaged: 2018-10-19 23:25:11
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,723
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10650240
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PseudoFox/pseuds/PseudoFox
Summary: In an alternative future, Judy Hopps and Nick Wilde have been living together in a nice apartment complex in downtown Zootopia. A peculiar holiday that Judy doesn't quite understand, let alone enjoy, is here. The residents want her to start things off for their special Easter celebration, but she feels reluctant to say the least.





	Rabbit Appreciation Day

**[Chapter One]**

**Some years after the Bellwether incident, in an alternative version of Zootopia...**

To say that the mammals on the block looked forward a bit to 'Rabbit Appreciation Day', known as 'Easter' by Zootopian historians, was like saying that Gazelle was a bit popular or that Tundratown was a bit cold. The towers of warm concrete that made up the biggest part of the apartment complex were decorated with a variety of massive spring-based holograms. Arrays of brightly-colored flowers and sets of babbling springs shone out above a group of happy residents. Various drones, each ferrying a vital package headed to some high-floored room, whizzed about far overhead. Their soft humming got eclipsed by the happy clamor of the mammals below.

Dozens of families had plans for that afternoon's ceremonial event. Their synthetic outfits shimmered with a myriad of floral designs, the smart-fabric cycling through decorative displays. Almost every single creature milling around the atrium— from the tall pair of antelopes lying in the grass to the crowd of friendly otters fresh from a swim in the community pool— wore a huge smile.

The lone exception was, ironically, one particularly overwhelmed bunny.

Judy Hopps was no stranger to public speaking. After her first disastrous news conference, she’d spent enough time in front of crowds that she could easily calm her nerves. But that day posed a... challenge. Her paws tensely rubbed up and down her decidedly low-tech shirt— the pink pastel garment being the only concession she’d made toward Zootopian Easter. That wasn't nearly enough for the crowd before her.

They wanted her to… open the ceremony.

It didn't matter that she was the only rabbit in the whole apartment complex. It didn’t matter that she had only to walk to a large black column and flick a switch. It didn't matter if her neighbors had explained the rituals to her over and over again the past few days. It didn't matter that Easter-themed items decorated every other spare inch of wall or floor that she'd seen.

It all felt… wrong.

"It's just gross," Judy remarked, holding up a flexible screen in front of her face. The numerous ads that flashed across the smooth plastic— hawking stylish new earbuds while flashing discounts for sweet potato fries, everything based on the bunny's recent messages— served as an impromptu shield.

"Aw, come on. Just do it this once, for this year's celebrations," Nick Wilde pouted, "Don't hold out on us, carrots. Please." He slid down on his knees, paws clasped together. Had it not been for his loud Hawaiian shirt— both visually and audibly, as the fabric played a tinny tune to go with his garish colors— he’d appear to be the pinnacle of prayer.

“No,” Judy said. She pulled the electronic device closer to her face.

"Pleeeease?” For once in his life, Nick seemed sincerely grateful. Not that that made Judy feel any better about the whole affair. “It's such an important event, Hopps. Rabbit Appreciation Day—"

"Oh, right, like the little baskets of _kitsch_ scattered all around weren't enough of a clue, showing just how big this all this," Judy muttered. She glanced over at the many mammals looking at the bench on which she sat. She tried to push them all out of her mind.

“But it’s,” Nick went on, “something that our neighbors have—”

"Not to mention all of the stupid lectures I've heard the past whole damn _week_ , too! Seems like you guys can’t get enough of Rabbit Appreciation Day!"

The fox stuck his face out, his chin slipping right over her portable computer and coming to rest between her ears. She hopped off of the bench, tossing the electronic device onto the grass, and headed for the other side of the atrium. Judy let out a resigned sigh as she heard the fox slinking along behind her.

"Can't you all just leave me alone about it?" She looked away from the other mammals completely— concentrating on one of the small fountains everlastingly erupting by the complex's gates. "Do things yourself?"

"Carrots," Nick called out in a soft voice.

"Have your _fun_ ," Judy said, making air quotes, "without me." She stepped closer and ran her paws in the middle of the fountain's rushing water. It felt completely natural and normal; perhaps, it was the only thing about that day that did.

"Judy... _Judith?_ " asked the fox.

Judy froze for several seconds. She then placed her head in her paws, sucked in a deep breath, and kicked the side of a big holographic tulip. Her leg passed in and out of the light without the slightest effect, but it still helped her vent.

"I told you," the bunny moaned, "time and time again, not to use that—"

"Judy, this is a ceremony that predators and prey alike have done for years now," chimed in Emmitt Otterton. The grinning otter, his body covered in pictures of blooming rose bushes, walked up beside Nick. “Using new technology to bring back this tradition, with all kinds of folks showing love for their rabbit brethren… it means a lot.”

For his part, the fox struck a begging pose once again, falling down on his knees. Both mammals seemed to look right through Judy’s body and pierce into her soul. She was nothing if not a determined bunny, but she still had limits, as well as a basic sense of futility.

"I know," Judy replied, rolling her eyes as she glanced back, "but—"

"It's important," Nick said.

"Please, for us... for everybody here..." Emmitt continued, patting a paw on Nick's shoulder, "throw the ceremonial switch."

"I just... I..." Judy whimpered.

"Fire the Dayhowlers, Judy," Nick said. The fox locked eyes with the bunny. "Do it."

Judy’s reluctance… it hadn’t vanished, but it was definitely slipping away. With mammal after mammal bringing their gazes over to her direction, all of them so intent on having their fun, her resistance felt useless. She nodded, ears rubbing against her shirt as they began to droop.

"As... you wish."

Cheers erupted across the atrium. As mammals high-fived and hugged, the bunny slowly marched over to the large switch. The short walk felt much longer than it should’ve— a funeral dirge might as well had been playing. She glanced about in all directions, conscious of the many eyes glued to her, and sucked in a massive breath. Without saying another word, Judy shoved the lever down.

Thick clouds of blue gas emerged from hidden nozzles, bathing the congregation in the slightly blueberry-scented mixture. Mammal after mammal held up their arms and looked to the skies. Judy witnessed the whole scene with shock— clutching the large black column in front of her as some sort of makeshift shield.

Nick twitched in Judy’s peripheral vision. Though the fox was several feet away from her and his back was turned, the sight still struck her. Spots burst out all across his body. His veins bulged out as a peculiar blue grow flashed across his entire body. The cocktail of genetically-modifying chemicals caused his limbs to shake, his muscles twisting a perverted dance.

Judy witnessed Nick's fur changing color and blood pooling into the fox's ears, the flesh contorting. She tried to look away, but she simply couldn't. Thankfully, the thick mist suddenly enveloped the air all around her. She could hear the emotion-soaked cries of the various mammals transforming, however, and she never experienced anything close to such disturbing noises ever before. She likely never would again.

Finally, a loud chime rang out from speakers all across the atrium. The process had finished. Judy felt the lever that she'd clung to abruptly swing back, the mechanical action tossing her into the air and down against the ground. A few bits of mud splattered across her shirt as her face mashed against the grass.

“God! I can’t,” Judy called out in pain, “believe… it’s adding insult to injury, when—”

Yet another set of cheers erupted. This one had an eerily familiar tone. Judy shut her mouth as she realized that she’d heard the same after a particularly good tackle or touchdown on the football fields back home. She gritted her teeth, knowing exactly what she was about to see, and lifted her head.

"Judy!"

She found herself tackled from both front and back. The two forces appeared to cancel each other out… for the most part. She still felt as if she'd gotten squished in a particularly fuzzy vice.

"Happy Easter!"

Judy wriggled her way out of the grip and clambered atop the podium Otterton had set up. It gave her a perfect view of the entire atrium… and what it contained.

Bunnies.

Lots of bunnies.

With the transformation complete, electronic clothes automatically shrinking to match the new sizes, the newly created rabbits bounced about mindlessly in all directions. Their stupid, gawking expressions matched their comically gigantic buckteeth. Mammal after mammal wiggled around upon the grass, ran through the still spurting fountains, and hopped onto each other's bodies.

"I'm a bunny? Wow, really," murmured a familiar-sounding voice off to the side.

Hearing it caused Judy to flip around. Nick’s body had gotten well warped into something like a child's parody of a lagomorph— body parts swollen and exaggerated in a way that seemed to make fun of the very existence of rabbits. Despite looking like an even worse case than the other apartment residents, though, Judy could make out Nick's particularly nice voice and almost chirping-like noises of happiness clear as crystal.

"I can't believe it! The genetic engineering stuff worked! I’m so glad that I moved here, somewhere where they’re making all of these dreams _real!_ "

"Nick..." Judy muttered, not sure how to even begin to talk to the post-transformation fox. That creature that rolled around on the ground and frantically rubbed all across his own face appeared completely unaware of Judy’s existence. “Are… are you…”

"I love Rabbit Appreciation Day," declared a particularly fat bunny, “love it more than anything! More than Jello! More than free Wi-Fi! More than oxygen! More than life!” The rabbit’s yelling filled the whole little area beside Judy and the transformed Nick.

After the fat rabbit grabbed a shorter and far more skinny companion from amidst a big patch of ferns, Judy slipped herself away from the ceremonial column and anxiously stepped over to where Nick lay. The newly made bunny had started making something like a snow angel… only doing so in a bit of mud. The goofy expression on his face made it seem as if his mind had shrunk by half.

"I wish I could be a silly little animal, without a care in the world, every day," chimed in yet another rabbit, running in a small circle with his tongue slurping out of his mouth, "I'm gonna eat so many carrots that I puke before puke-kissing every guy that I see!" 

“Racist, sexist, and utterly disgusting,” Judy remarked, slapping her arms against her sides, “I guess that former otter or whatever the hell he is just _had_ to go for the trifecta.”

Almost as if on queue, the slobbering lagomorph got suddenly gripped by another bunny from behind. The taller but more adventurous one had familiar facial features that rang a bell in her mind, despite the transformation. Emmitt, in his new guise, didn’t hesitate to start French kissing his companion.

"I'm going to be a cock-sleeve for so many guys that they'll screw my brains out,” declared a bunny from far behind Judy. She turned to see him leaping through a pair of fountains, tumbling his suddenly soaked body atop a group of tiny, squabbling rabbits.

"Not that we’ve any left, of course!"

Judy didn’t hear who’d made that last remark. She didn’t really care. She’d already heard enough. "Lamb of God," Judy murmured, stepping away from the dopey-looking crowd and leaning up against the apartment’s entrance, “the guys at furchan were _right_. These ‘Rabbit Appreciation Day’ chemical baths aren’t just pointless, bigoted nonsense! It like their brains shrink as much as their bodies do, ugh!”

"Hey, everybody!" Emmitt yelled. He hopped on top of a group of ten rabbits and stretched out his paws. The other lagomorphs froze, maybe wondering how the morphed otter had gotten so loud. Judy had one eye on him and another on the keypad for the atrium’s double-doors. "Enough just playing around."

"Why?" asked some bunny from the other side of the atrium.

"Oh, you silly," Emmitt went on, grinning, "it's time for the orgy! Rabbits doing what rabbits do best!"

The audience went wild. Judy watched, head resting upon her paws in disbelief, as transformed bunny after transformed bunny locked their slobbering mouths upon each other. Clothes shot out into the air as the rabbits slipped out of them. Whatever sense of shyness, taste, or even basic respect for anatomical sense went completely out of the window.

Twitching bunny penises shoved thoughtlessly into anything that could hold them. Judy witnessed them going into ears. Then, they slipped into nostrils. Then, they went through armpits. Gender identity and sexual orientation seemed to have lost any meaning. Every open paw had started rubbing some spare erection. Every open tail-hole had gotten plugged up. Every mouth that didn't have a throbbing hard rabbit rod nudged into it was squeaking out in raw delight.

“Nick, I swear to God, I don’t care whatever idiocy the ‘Naturalist Club’ has made up to act like this all makes sense!” Judy screamed out, trying to raise her voice over the moaning crowd. She hopped in between pairs of lewd rabbits as she hunted around for the morphed ex-fox. “We’re getting the hell out of here, and celebrating the holiday with a nice, fancy meal at a decent restaurant! And we’re leaving right now, damn it!”

In the back of Judy's mind, she wondered what it would take to find any of this arousing. She focused on Emmitt in particular, as much as she tried to keep her mind on grabbing Nick. The newly minted male rabbit had angled his head in the middle of marble statue in order jamming as many inches as he could take into his right ear. Judy couldn't help but wonder if the day after Easter would be dedicated to hearing aid shopping.

“Nick, I’m out of patience!” Judy yelled, angrily tapping her paws against the grass.

“And I’m out of carrot juice!” Nick called out, the voice weirdly coming out from all directions.

Before Judy could make sense of that, she felt a sudden throb on the back of her head. She rubbed the fur vigorously, looking straight up, and scowled from cheek to cheek. Nick had perched himself at the top of a skinny tree and clutched a small backpack full of little containers. One by one, he sucked them down and tossing them at various mammals below him.

“Nick, first of all, that’s littering, and we’re both cops, so don’t make me write you a ticket for that,” Judy declared, pointing up at Nick. She stabbed her paw in the air, looking almost as if she could will him to fall into the adjacent pool. “Second of all, just… _what the hell_ do you think you’ve done? Inviting me to start this! Pretending like I might even like this! Acting like this weird naturalist sort of ‘holiday’ makes even the tiniest bit of sense! _Seriously!_ ”

“He’s a dumb bunny, like all of us,” muttered a pair of small rabbits chasing each other behind Judy, “why think? Why make sense?”

“Oh, _shut up,_ ” Judy groused, glaring at them. Somehow, her angry stare didn’t do anything except motivate them to start groping each other. Judy shut her eyes and then turned back over in Nick’s direction.

“And done with another one,” Nick said, crumpling another can of carrot juice, “sorry Officer Toot-Toot, but for this… happy birthday, _to the ground!_ ” He triumphantly tossed it straight downward— the little bit of metal bouncing over into the pool and making a tiny, pathetic splash.

“Nick!” Judy opened up her eyes again and hopped right up to the tree.

“What?” Nick seemed to pay complete attention to her for the first time… the first time as a rabbit, at least.

“I swear,” Judy declared, “I’m going to get back to you for bringing me to this!”

**[End of Chapter One]**

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you very much for reading!
> 
> I wanted to write something riffing on the Easter holiday, and I also wanted to do something based on the 'Thematic Thursday' recurring event, with various Zootopian fans deciding to do something science fiction related. So, well, I decided to do this writing experiment. I'm not sure how it's exactly worked out. Still, I'd love to get feedback on this piece. Please post if you've any criticisms, ideas, or anything of the sort. And thanks again for reading the piece.


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